Joint West Campus Committee

December 2009 Joint West Meeting

Rob Kennedy, with UW Transportation Services, provided an overview of the UW Commuter Solutions (formerly the campus TDM - Transportation Demand Management) program. The UW currently has approximately 42,000 students and approximately 22,000 employees including UW Hospital staff. Visitors are currently upwards of 4.6 million per year across the campus. TDM efforts generally have an overall goal to reduce the demand for driving alone to and from campus and to provide a variety of alternatives to single occupancy vehicles on campus.

Important planning processes related to TDM efforts include the 2005 Campus Master Plan, the UW’s long range transportation plan (as part of the overall 2005 Campus Master Plan), and coordination with major projects and their development across campus. Managing parking is an important part of the overall commuter solutions plan. As part of the overall master plan and in negotiations with the city of Madison and local neighborhoods, the campus has capped parking on campus at approximately 13,000 parking spaces including all permit and visitor parking spaces. Also, a goal in the 2005 Campus Master Plan is to replace surface parking with more efficient parking structures in key locations. Currently the UW also has over 9,400 bicycle parking spaces on campus and approximately 1,900 mopeds, the latter of which must park only in designated moped parking areas.

Walking and pedestrian facilities are also an important transportation system across campus. The overall pedestrian system is made up of strong sidewalk design standards, strong accessibility standards, bike/pedestrian paths and bridges, and the SAFEwalk program for students on campus. The campus “lightway” is still being used across campus to direct students to a well lit sidewalk path for nighttime travel.

Bicycle facility improvements are increased across campus including new bike lanes, new bike/paths, a new mixed use pedestrian/bike mall (East Campus Mall), and approximately 9,000 bicyclists on campus on any given day.

The current campus bus system provides 30,000 service hours with 2.2 million rides per year. The overall cost is shared between UW Transportation Services and the Associated Students of Madison. The campus bus routes are the most productive routes in the overall Madison Metro system. The unlimited bus pass program is provided to all faculty, staff and students with funding coming from segregated student fees (for students) and funding from Transportation Services (for faculty and staff). This program provides approximately 50% of the budgeted income for Madison Metro.

Alan Fish and Pete Heaslett (FP&M staff) provided an overview on the status of the proposed Wisconsin Energy Institute project. The project is a two-phase development that will likely be constructed over time. The second phase may happen immediately after the first phase if project funding becomes available. The first phase is a $50 million project with an office block on the south side of the building and a lab block on the north side. This helps reduce the size of the building on the south respecting the height of the church nave across the street. Alan Fish noted that the city is working with the university to redesign the overall intersection of University Avenue, Breese Terrace and Campus Drive. Options include a T-intersection of either Campus Drive to University Avenue or the other way around (University Avenue T into Campus Drive). The city has delayed reconstruction of the intersection from what was a proposed summer 2010 project.

The overall draft site plan was presented showing Phase 1 development on the old University Health Service site at 1552 University Avenue. The main entry is on University Avenue in line with Breese Terrace. A coffee shop/café is located on the southeast corner of the building on the first floor which has the potential of being a nice community asset for the campus users as well as the neighbors in the area. The Phase 2 draft site plan was also shared with further development to the west on the existing ROTC site. (ROTC would be relocated elsewhere on campus.) Alan reminded the group that these are very front end designs for the building and input is welcome. The same preliminary plans are being presented to the campus Design Review Board tomorrow and to the State Department of Administration’s peer review as well.

Pete Heaslett review the proposed building floor plans. First floor has mostly public visitor space with education and outreach spaces, the coffee/café, reception, conference spaces, main lobby, etc. Floors 2 through 5 are labs and offices. The main tenant is the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center doing bioenergy and renewable energy research. A central light well divides the office wing from the lab wing bringing daylight into the two parts of the building.

Pete also shared the early concept renderings of the exterior of the building. The office wing is slightly taller than the nave of the church. The lab wing is higher with the mechanical penthouse spaces that are about the same height as the Enzyme Institute to the west. The east end of the building is fairly clear and transparent that helps minimize the visual impact on the historic church to the south. Exterior materials have yet to be defined. The high walls around the mechanical penthouse helps reduce the noise generated by the HVAC systems.

Bike parking is located under an overhang along the south side of the building in Phase 1. Commuter showers are included inside the building for bicyclists. Additional bike parking would be provided under Phase 2 development.

Stormwater management is being reviewed for potential on-site infiltration through possible rain garden designs.

Alan shared a parking analysis for the facility that looks at what was existing on site with the old University Health Services building comparing it to the proposed parking for the new building. The UW district parking program provides parking for users in an area of campus and not for specific buildings. The number of occupants will be similar in the new building with most likely much less visitor traffic. Existing parking will be lost on site (about 50 parking spaces). Within the district we have a similar amount with new parking at Union South. It was noted that the majority of the Regent Street neighborhood (Regent Street to University Avenue and from Breese Terrace to Allen Street) parking is under 2 hour parking restrictions.

The entire building is approximately 100,000 gross square feet (both phases together is 200,000 GSF). Each floor is about 20,000 GSF in Phase 1.

Projected schedule is for construction to start in the end of summer 2010 with completion in the summer of 2012.